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Trump Continues Baseless Attack On Mail-In Voting; White House Testing Czar: Don't Get Hung Up On The Number Of Tests; Trump Praises GOP Candidate Who Promoted Conspiracy Theories; Harris Praises Biden's Audacity To Select Black Woman As VP; Food Banks Struggling To Feed People As Crisis Worsens; Police Search For Man Accused Of Starting California Wildfire; Thousands Arrested As Belarusians Protest Vote They Call Rigged. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired August 15, 2020 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:59:59]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Testing trouble? The White House task force is pushing back as health experts argue for a major increase in coronavirus testing.

Plus, center stage. Ahead of next week's convention, Senator Kamala Harris gives her first interview since becoming Biden's presidential pick.

And fires and floods. We'll have the latest on the extreme weather impacting millions of Americans.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Bianna Golodryga, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with protesters gathering today outside the home of the postmaster general with a message.

Demonstrators are demanding that postmaster general Louis DeJoy end a series of recent changes to the post service that have slowed mail delivery. They say DeJoy, who's an ally of President Trump is trying to sabotage the mail system ahead of the upcoming election where more voters will mail in their ballots because of the pandemic. Among those voters, well the President and the first lady, who both requested mail-in ballots in Florida.

But that didn't stop President Trump who even this morning continues his baseless attacks on mail-in voting. Tweeting that the 2020 election will be a fraudulent mess and that we may never know who won.

CNN's Abby Phillip has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: After months of railing against mail-in ballots that he claims without evidence will hurt Republicans -- DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mail-in voting is going

to be the greatest fraud in the history of elections.

PHILLIP: President Trump now admitting this week that he wants to hold up funding for the U.S. Postal service to gain a political advantage in November.

TRUMP: They want $25 billion -- billion for the post office. But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.

PHILLIP: In May, Trump installed a top Republican donor Louis DeJoy as postmaster general. And in the last two weeks an avalanche of developments have raised new questions about Trump's influence over the agency and the risk that mail delays could have an effect on the election.

Earlier this month, Trump met with DeJoy in the Oval Office for a meeting that the White House said was about congratulating him on his appointment in May. Two days later, DeJoy met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a contentious meeting where Democrats demanded an end to the cutbacks.

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We are not going to stop fighting until state election systems and the post office, which is part of getting the mail there on time, get the resources that they need.

PHILLIP: Just days after that, DeJoy announced a major restructuring of top USPS jobs that some Democrats called a Friday night massacre. Trump later lying about speaking with DeJoy despite meeting with him.

TRUMP: Well, I didn't speak to the postmaster general of the post office. I know this. He's a very good businessman.

PHILLIP: Over at USPS the warnings of trouble ahead are piling up.

KEITH COMBS, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, DETROIT DISTRICT: When you start making cuts, you're delaying the process. You're not speeding up the process. I'm a 31-year postal employee. I've never seen these type of cuts being put in place in order to make the service better.

PHILLIP: The postal service's top lawyer sending nearly all states including battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Minnesota warnings that ballots may not be delivered in time to meet election deadlines sending election officials scrambling to determine if and how they can change their deadlines.

And CNN is now learning that USPS is removing hundreds of mail sorting machines across the country responsible for processing millions of pieces of mail ahead of an election that could see historic mail-in voter turnout. All this prompting a rebuke from Democrats and Republicans alike.

SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): But now is not the time to be cutting back services. I do disagree with the President very strongly on that issue. The postal service is absolutely essential.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we've never seen before is a president say I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason why I'm doing it.

PHILLIP: The postmaster general writing to postal workers Thursday that the restructuring resulted in unintended consequences, in other words, delayed mail all over the country.

And with all this happening, more states are turning primarily to mail-in voting for the general election. The latest New Jersey. And in Pennsylvania, state officials say they're willing to accept ballots that have been postmarked by Election Day, a change in their position prompted by concerns over mail delivery delays.

[11:04:52]

PHILLIP: And President Trump now appears to be walking back his opposition to funding the postal service, telling reporters in a briefing at the White House that he would be willing to fund USPS to the tune of $25 billion if Democrats accede to his demands for other forms of funding in the coronavirus stimulus bill that is under negotiation on Capitol Hill.

Abby Phillip, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And now to a story we reported first on CNN. The postal service's inspector general is now looking at some of the recent policy changes and potential ethics conflicts with postmaster general DeJoy.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is looking into all of this. So Marshall, what are you learning this morning?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Yes Bianna, the inspector general at the postal service, she is looking into these changes that Louis DeJoy has imposed this summer after taking the job. The inspector general is looking into whether these changes are political in nature, kind of meant to slow down the mail and disrupt the massive influx in mail-in voting that's expected this year.

There's another component to this though, and it should be mentioned. The inquiry, the review, is also looking into whether DeJoy, the postmaster general, has properly followed all the ethics laws and regulations. And that's because he still has massive holdings to the tune of about 30 million, at least 30 million in his old company, which is a contractor with the postal service. And he also recently bought stock options in Amazon, a competitor to the postal service.

So, he says he's followed all the rules. The experts we spoke to said that this could be a serious conflict of interest. And now the inspector general is reviewing the matter. GOLODRYGA: Which raises a question as to whether the inspector general

will continue to have her job given what we've seen in the past when inspectors general launch investigations.

Marshall, let me ask you a follow up because the White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is also coming out now against mail-in voting. What is he saying about this?

COHEN: Yes. Bianna, it's really been like a non-stop avalanche of claims and attacks against mail-in voting. So Jared Kushner is just the latest. They're trying to stop more states from expanding it.

So let's take a listen to what he told our colleague Christiane Amanpour yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: This is an unprecedented attempt by people to use an unproven method that quite frankly they don't have the time or the infrastructure to set up correctly.

What you're basically saying is no, we're relying on the postal system and the federal government to run an unprecedented mass operation in a very efficient way where there's a lot of examples of that's rife with abuse and fraud.

I think what you're seeing on both sides is a lot of posturing. You see that from what President Obama said and you're seeing it from what President Trump has said. But at the end of the day, what everyone wants is just a fair election where we know what the rules are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Look Bianna, I've just got to give you a quick fact-check here. He said that mail-in voting is unproven and full of fraud. That's totally false. That's a complete lie. They've been doing this in states across the country for many years.

There are going to be huge challenges this year, unprecedented challenges because of the pandemic. But it's not true to say that this is unproven, untested and it's just not true.

GOLODRYGA: We also know that many members of this administration in the past have also mailed-in their ballots as well.

Marshall Cohen, great reporting and fact checking. Thank you so much.

COHEN: Thank you.

And now to the reasons so many Americans are worried about in-person voting and, of course, that's the pandemic which shows no sign of slowing down. The U.S. recording more than 64,000 new cases of COVID- 19 on Friday. And for a 19th consecutive day more than 1,000 deaths. 31 states are reporting a positivity rate of more than 5 percent.

Now, this is despite the steady rise in cases and positive tests. The White House coronavirus testing czar says the administration has done everything it can to increase testing capacity.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is following the latest and joins us now.

So Brynn, the U.S. is still struggling with testing delays and supply chain shortages.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianna. I mean there's continued criticism that the administration really needs to take the reigns on this issue and come up with a uniform strategy to get this testing figured out and really working at this point especially where we are in this pandemic.

As you know, states right now are left to their own devices having to do the testing on their own terms. And it's really exacerbated problems with this issues. You know we've heard about times where people are waiting days, sometimes a week or more to get test results back, which of course is difficult for public health officials at the local level to really track the virus in their local communities.

And on CNN, the White House task force testing czar came on the air yesterday evening to really clear the air after he received a lot of criticism from health experts around this country, one in particular, saying that we are nowhere near the testing capacity that this country needs to do to get a handle on this virus, saying that there really needs to be about four to five million tests done per day when really there's hundreds of thousands.

[11:00:958]

GINGRAS: And Brett Giroir came on the air essentially saying that the administration is doing all that it can, that testing isn't the only part of the strategy. That other mitigation efforts are also important like washing hands and social distancing.

But I want you to hear more of what he said here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TESTING CZAR: There is no physical way to do five million tests per day in this country. If there's a way to turn it from one million to five million today, let me know. We're investing in new technology. We're providing new EUAs. We're investing heavily into point of care tests.

Everything that we can do to increase the testing capacity of the country.

(CROSSTALK)

GIROIR: Everything that can possibly be done has been done. If somebody has an idea, and I mean this, we have an open testing forum. We've opened it up to multidisciplinary groups. We met yesterday. We met two weeks ago. I'm on the phone constantly. If there's a good idea, I want to hear it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GINGRAS: And Giroir in that interview also said that next week we'll be hearing about an action being taken under the Defense Protection Act to improve testing, though he wouldn't give any details of what exactly that will be or how it's going to help Americans during this critical issue -- with this critical issue, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Really curious to see what those DPA actions will be.

Brynn Gingras, thank you.

Well, joining me now is Dr. Craig Spencer. He's the director of Global Health and ER Medicine at New York Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.

DR. CRAIG SPENCER, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Thanks for having me.

GOLODRYGA: So let's start with the national testing here. We're currently testing over 700,000 daily. But we know that number is going down.

Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute says that, you know, you can debate the ideal number of daily testing, which he believes should be at least four million to five million a day. But when you hear the administration is actually asking for roughly 220,000 daily tests, it does seem like we're beyond a reasonable debate.

What is your view on how many people should be tested daily in this country right now?

DR. SPENCER: Well, we certainly needed a lot more than we're testing right now. We know that the percent positivity of tests in certain regions of the country is still extremely high, over 10-15 percent. That means that we're not testing enough.

I know that President keeps saying we're doing more testing than anywhere else in the world, which per capita may be true, but we also have way more cases than almost everywhere else in the world, which means we need to be doing more testing if we want to safely send kids back to school, if we want to send people safely back to work.

Whether it's, you know, one million or two million or four million, what it is it's certainly way more than 200,000 and even way more than we're doing right now which also has decreased -- the amount of testing we've been doing has decreased, you know.

This is the first time in the past few weeks that we've had less tests this week than the week before, which is not the direction that we need to be going in while we still have cases all throughout the country.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And I'm curious as to why we're seeing this decline in nationwide testing. We've seen testing drop in several states with positivity rates above 10 percent including South Carolina, Mississippi and I believe Nevada as well.

Some local officials are saying, well, that is a drop in demand, not necessarily access to testing. Does that strike you as a legitimate factor?

DR. SPENCER: I think it's probably a couple of things. One thing might be that, look, if you get tested in certain places throughout the country now, you're waiting three, four, seven days maybe even longer to get a test result back. That's completely useless for most people that want to use it to inform whether they're sick, whether they can go out and do some other things.

My guess is that there are people that probably just saying if I'm not going to get a test result back in four, seven, ten days there's no point in actually even getting tested.

I think there are other things that are happening here but it's clear that we've reached a peak or really the maximum of what the testing infrastructure here in the U.S. is able to handle.

And again, we need way more. We need to be thinking about how we incorporate other different types of rapid tests. We need different ideas. We need different plans to get us through this because again, what we're doing right now is not close to sufficient.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. I mean I appreciate Admiral Giroir's honesty when he says if anybody has answers or solutions, please bring them forward. But then you're remind that this is the United States of America and we've been the middle of this crisis for months now and he's soliciting advice at this point.

I want to ask you about what you make of some troubling -- I found to be -- let me get your reaction, troubling reporting out of the CDC which says that those who recovered from COVID likely have antibodies for at least three months and don't need to get tested until after that time.

The reason I say disappointing is because three months does appear to be a rather short window, no?

DR. SPENCER: Well, I think that the way that this was reported by the CDC and the way that this was reported by the media are different.

What they said -- what the CDC said is that we think that people who have been infected have up to three months of immunity. Meaning that we know that up to three months you're going to have some protection against being reinfected.

Now, it may be that it's longer. We just don't have data to say four months, six months a year because again, this virus has only been around for a short period of time.

[11:14:58]

DR. SPENCER: So I think it is encouraging. It is certainly better than finding out that people who have had the virus have absolutely no protection against getting reinfected in the short-term. But it's really just a first step.

And the likelihood is that we'll probably find that people have protection longer. We don't know if it's going to be six months, a year or further. But this is really just a first step in giving us a scientific body of evidence to say that at least in that initial period after an infection the likelihood that you're going to be reinfected is extremely low if not zero.

GOLODRYGA: Ok. Well, it's reassuring to hear that you're a bit more optimistic about it but also important to remember that we're dealing with a novel coronavirus, right? So we're still learning so much about this.

Dr. Craig Spencer, thank you so much for joining us. Have a great weekend.

DR. SPENCER: Thanks. You, too.

GOLODRYGA: Well, President Trump is now aligning himself with the Georgia Republican congressional candidate who believes a conspiracy theory about the government being full of cannibals and pedophiles.

And when it comes to Senator Kamala Harris, Trump is reverting, well, to his same tropes, reviving his racist birther attack, targeting Harris's nationality and race. She responds in her first TV interview since becoming Joe Biden's running mate. We'll play that for you coming up next.

[11:16:11]

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GOLODRYGA: It's no secret that the President oftentimes serves as conspiracy theorist in chief and that's probably why he appears to have no problem backing a Georgia house candidate with a history of promoting baseless and dangerous QAnon theories in addition to making racist and anti-Semitic remarks.

CNN's Sarah Westwood is at the White House. And Sarah, why won't the President at this point at the very least just denounce these harmful theories. Of course, you know, we're approaching just a few months until the Election Day. You would think he'd walk it back.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Bianna.

That is the definitely the question worth asking here after the President declined an opportunity yesterday to distance himself from the conspiracy theories embraced by Marjorie Taylor Greene. That is the GOP candidate who won a congressional primary this week in Georgia. She's been fully endorsed by President Trump.

But he spent this point in the briefing yesterday when she was brought up just praising her victory and her popularity in Georgia. And when he was pressed by the reporter in the briefing about whether he did support those same QAnon theories as Greene's.

He simply tried to move on and call on a different reporter refusing to answer the question. I want you to take a listen to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Greene has been a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory. She said it's something that should be -- would be worth listening to. Do you agree with her on that?

TRUMP: Well, she did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state. And she had a tremendous victory. So absolutely I did congratulate her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now Greene has said that these theories are worth paying attention to. But I want to just walk through some of the theories that are associated with QAnon online because some of them are pretty shocking.

It's that high profile people are participating in child sex rings, again completely baseless. That the deep state is trying to sabotage Trump's presidency and they have floated theories associated with mass shootings and elections and also that 5G networks are somehow spreading COVID. And the President pointedly did not distance himself from all of that yesterday.

And Greene herself could pose some headaches for Republican. She's in a very safe red district in Georgia so she's very likely heading to Congress in the fall. Leaders, congressional leaders from the GOP, had condemned her racist rhetoric back in the summer when some of it surfaced, some of those anti-Semitic and racist comments.

But they have sort of pivoted and saying they look forward to welcoming her to Washington. So she is sure to be a divisive figure should she ascend to Congress, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: To say the least. And the President would be helping a lot of those within his own party if he walked away from some of those statements or at least denounced them. Instead he's putting them in a very uncomfortable position. Important to remember this is not normal.

Sarah Westwood, thank you so much.

Well, in her first interview as Joe Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris is speaking out on what it means to be a black woman on the ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-NY), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Joe Biden had the audacity to choose a black woman to be his running mate. How incredible is that? And what a statement about Joe Biden, that he decided that he was going to do that thing that was about breaking one of the most substantial barriers that has existed in our country and that he made that decision with whatever risk that brings.

I think as much as anything it's a statement about the character of the man that we're going to elect as next president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And here with me now to discuss is David Swerdlick, CNN political commentator and assistant editor for "The Washington Post". Along with Brittany Shepherd, national politics reporter for Yahoo News. Welcome both of you.

Brittany, let's begin with you.

It has been a rather flawless first week for the Biden campaign after announcing Kamala Harris as his running mate it has raised more than $50 million. What is your take on what was on the one hand viewed as a safe bet but it's still groundbreaking?

BRITTANY SHEPHERD, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, YAHOO NEWS: Well, certainly the Biden campaign is happy to have Harris on their ticket. Like you said in just 48 hours they raised $48 million, just to put that in context. That's as much as Biden raised in all of 2019. So there is obviously a ground swell of excitement here.

I think a lot that went into the Biden campaign's calculus is not just about bringing youth to the ticket perhaps appeasing some progressives, being able to appeal to swing Trump voters who just kind of want something different, want something invigorating but also looking forward to who might be able to run the country the top of the ticket next election.

[11:24:49]

SHEPHERD: And so that's why when we someone like Karen Bass, Susan Rice -- none of them has legislative experience with Biden like Kamala Harris. And I think that's part of the reason why they're seeing such a ground swell of excitement right now.

GOLODRYGA: And David, that hasn't stopped birtherism from showing its head just a few days into this pick and this ticket. I'm not going to ask you if it surprises you, but does the timing just a few days in surprise you? Because there had been reporting that some of these other candidates had been vetted and given let's say Tammy Duckworth, who happened to be born overseas though to an American father, that was raised as a potential possible issue and thus they didn't want to go with her.

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

GOLODRYGA: And one of the reasons they want with Kamala is because this didn't seem to be like a controversial area and yet here we are just days in and we're talking about it.

SWERDLICK: Yes. Good morning, Bianna.

So "Newsweek" came out with this article, this op-ed, and they're denying their editor is saying, no, this isn't birtherism. And she's right in the sense that it's different than the Obama birtherism issue where people were disputing whether he was born in the United States. This is a case where they're trying to raise a debate about whether -- what the definition of natural born citizen is in the 14th amendment. So narrowly it's different.

Widely speaking it is a similar pattern though, because what you have is an argument being raised, as you said, at this particular moment that's meant to otherize, that's meant to racialize the pick of Senator Harris as the running mate for Joe Biden to highlight the fact that she has immigrant parents, that she's black and South Asian American and it's a swiss cheesy legal argument but it serves the purpose to underscore and remind people that she's different. And I think that's what people are pushing back so strongly against.

And it's been raised before. But as you say, that timing is awfully, awfully questionable when it didn't come up at any point in the past when she was running in the Democratic primary or when she was sort of being widely talked about on that short list.

GOLODRYGA: That's right. Kamala Harris born in Oakland, California to a mother from India and a father from Jamaica. And the President was asked about it. And he simply said again as he famously does, may be true. We'll have to look into it. I'm not sure. And he clearly isn't shutting down the issue.

But what's interesting is that others in his administration aren't as well. Here is senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner when he was asked about this topic earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: So, the President obviously has raised a lot of eyebrows by commenting and seeming to agree and certainly spread this notion that has been perpetuated in the "Newsweek" by a conservative lawyer, that somehow Kamala Harris is unqualified to run for vice president.

Why would your -- why would your father-in-law, your candidate, the President, actually do this? What is the point of spreading that kind of disinformation that's contrary to the United States constitution?

KUSHNER: Look, right now you're the one spreading that disinformation. The President was at a coronavirus briefing. He was asked by a reporter about a report in "Newsweek". And his words were "I don't know anything about that." And since then the media has been going wild basically saying that he was pushing a theory. I'll take him at his word that he said he doesn't know anything about that and that's what he said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: So Brittany, do you envision this becoming a topic that we continue discussing unfortunately in the weeks ahead? Or is this just noise that the administration is throwing out there because perhaps they don't have many other things to attack Kamala for at this point?

SHEPHERD: Well, I think Bianna, it can be both especially as we're going into the DNC and the RNC the week after that. You're not just hearing this, well, I'm not saying she's completely ineligible but maybe she is, from Jared Kushner and also hearing it from various members of the Trump campaign on social media.

And, you know, I think it's an attack from the White House, that might not land with Harris. Of course, Democrats might be frustrated that they're still talking about birtherism, a very obvious racist trope.

However, we're looking at a pretty stacked speaker list coming into the DNC. And Democrats are very quick to want to tell their voter base that they are not racist, right? And so they will talk all day and it is a way to unite those speakers.

You look at someone as progressive as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to someone as, you know, centrist Democrat as Michael Bloomberg. Not many things align those two speakers on Monday and Tuesday. But certainly they'll both be able to get on stage and hammer Trump, hammer Jared Kushner and the White House on these birtherism claims. So it might be able to actually be somehow a boon to Democrats.

Plus, every moment that the White House takes speaking about Kamala Harris's race, her eligibility is one that they're not talking about examining her record, you know. And so Democrats might feel like all right, let's not talk about her record that could come under scrutiny. Let's just keep talking about this effort in which we can just raise money on and continue to win.

[11:30:01]

GOLODRYGA: David --

SWERDLICK: Bianna -- if I could just add quickly ---

GOLODRYGA: Go ahead.

SWERDLICK: If I could just add quickly. Right, I agree with Brittany and I would just add that as you said, this is a problem for the White House because unlike some of the other potential candidates who are on the short list, they're not going to be able to say Pocahontas, Pocahontas, Pocahontas, Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, Cuba, Cuba, Cuba. They're fishing for a way to come at and attack Senator Harris.

There are ways to attack her but they're not the low-hanging fruit that they had hoped for. And so you see the White House and you see in that interview with Jared Kushner trying to figure out a way to keep the faux controversy about citizenship alive without getting their fingerprints on it.

At the end of the 2016 campaign, Trump had to sort of phonily disown the birther controversy. But they liked where it got them up to that point.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And it's interesting you say all of that as the President says that the Kamala Harris was his top draft pick, right? Who knows if that actually is factual? But we are looking forward to -- SWERDLICK: It's not.

GOLODRYGA: -- covering the convention next week.

David, ok. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Well in a year like no other, the 2020 race is an election like no other. Watch CNN's special live coverage of the 2020 Democratic National Convention for all the biggest moments, the most important speeches and insight on what it all means for Joe Biden in the future of the Democratic Party. That's starting Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Jobless Americans struggling to make ends meet as Congress leaves Washington without a deal on a new stimulus plan. Coming up, we'll talk with people at a massive food distribution site in Atlanta.

[11:31:43]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Millions of jobless Americans have been without the federal unemployment benefit for weeks now after it was allowed to expire with no new deal from Congress on another rescue package. That is putting increasing pressure on food banks to help feed people who can't afford to feed themselves. And right now, people are lined up in Atlanta for a massive food drive.

CNN's Natasha Chen is there. And Natasha, it always breaks my heart when I see these lines across the country. People have been there for hours to get this assistance this morning, correct?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianna.

The food drive is actually wrapping up just about now. But you could still see the last few cars here coming through. They are, you know, pulling around, getting what they can from these folks, volunteering.

And this morning, we did see a long line of cars. People who got here early waited about three hours for this to start. And the organizers over here were telling us that, you know, they used to do these food drives once a quarter. But during the pandemic because of demand that has become every other week.

And it sounds like these people really need it. One woman parked over there just was very emotional telling me how grateful she is for this. A lot of them have had changes to their employment status, of course.

Here is one woman we talked to who said that she's an independent contractor and has lost her job during COVID-19.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLETTE BELLE, LINED UP FOR GEORGIA FOOD BANK: It has been really, really horrific. And some days I can handle it emotionally and some days I'm just depressed. But I keep pushing. I do the perseverance part of it. And I do, as I said, believe and have a faith in a power greater than COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: and she did tell me as well that she felt a lot of frustration with the leadership in this country. She felt that there should have been A more serious shutdown in the beginning to really quash this virus instead of the status that we're at now.

Georgia is seeing more than 3,000 cases on a daily basis going back about a month, though Governor Kemp, Governor Brian Kemp tweeted this morning some improvements. He says that hospitalizations are down over the past week and he calls it a decrease in case numbers over the past two weeks relative to the previous two weeks.

So, still we're seeing kids go back to school. Lots of trouble with case numbers, testing positive in those school buildings and school leaders grappling with whether to keep the kids in the building or switch to a virtual mode, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And as you mentioned children, and those food banks, I think of all the kids that were relying on schools -- on food at schools and now they're at home. And you see their parents, some of them, in these lines as well. Hopefully a wakeup call for Washington indeed.

Natasha Chen, thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Coming ahead, explosive fires burning right now across several western states. And the record heat, well, it's not helping. We're live next.

[11:39:05]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Officials in California are searching for a man they believe started a wildfire in Los Angeles County. Austin Fulgencio (ph) is wanted in connection with the Ranch 2 (ph) fire which has already burned 2,500 acres.

The fire is one of several raging across the west. Fires have already burned over 100,000 acres in California, Oregon and Colorado. The Lake fire in northern Los Angeles County has scorched over 17,000 acres and destroyed 21 structures.

In Oregon, 565 homes have been evacuated as firefighters work to contain a nearly 1,000 acre blaze near Mosier Creek.

Meanwhile in Colorado, parts of Highway 70 are closed as firefighters battle the Grizzly Creek fire. The blaze has burned 13,000 acres and is zero percent contained. Colorado Governor Jared Polis called it the top fire priority in the country.

Well, the weekend is unlikely to bring relief for firefighters battling the blazes across the West. Over 80 million people are under excessive heat warnings this weekend stretching from California to Texas.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is with us. Allison, what kind of temperatures should people out West be prepared for?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So in the southwest, places like southern California and Arizona you're talking triple digits. But even places like Seattle are likely going to get into the low to mid 90s over the next couple of days which is hot for them. I know that may not seem like that high for other areas but it is for them.

So yes, you're talking about a pretty wide expanse here dealing with those incredibly hot temperatures. And that's not good for the fires, especially the firefighters. They're in full gear. They're out there trying to battle those blazes and also trying to battle the heat as well.

Two of the fires we've been focused on, the Ranch 2 fire again, only 3 percent contained. The Lake Fire only 12 percent contained. But the Lake Fire specifically is very impressive with how quickly it grew. It went from 50 to 10,000 acres in just two and a half hours.

[11:45:02]

CHINCHAR: To put that in perspective, that means at one point it was consuming 66 acres per minute. That's consuming basically the equivalent of an entire football field in just about every second.

One of the contributing factors has been the lack of rain. Again, look at Los Angeles. It's been 88 days since they've had measurable rain. Las Vegas it's been over 100 days since they've had measurable rain.

And now you're going to be talking about heat on top of that. And again, we're not talking 5 to 10 degrees above average. You're talking record-breaking. And again, for multiple states including Colorado, which as you mentioned is also fighting several fires as well. Several of which are still at zero percent contained. So do keep that in mind.

And they desperately need to see some rain. One area that doesn't need any more rain are areas of the Midwest. They're still dealing with the repercussions from the Derecho Event that moved in earlier this week bringing 19 tornado reports over 500 severe wind reports and 25 large hail report.

Some of the largest damage and most widespread damage coming from the state of Iowa. You can see here, just crops flattened, levelled because of the strong winds there. Also a lot of structures and buildings sustained some pretty significant damage, Bianna.

But it wasn't just Iowa. You also had damage in Illinois, Indiana and a lot of the other surrounding states as well.

GOLODRYGA: Let's hope those firefighters out west get some relief from Mother Nature soon. Allison, thank you so much.

Well next, thousands of protesters arrested while calling for a fair election in a country home to the man dubbed Europe's longest-serving dictator. We're live with the calls for change.

But first in today's "Represented", we set our sights high on the world's first certified armless pilot, Jessica Cox. Her limitless courage is inspiring women in aviation around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA COX, THE WORLD'S FIRST CERTIFIED ARMLESS PILOT: Knowing that I'm doing this in an unmodified airplane, just flying with my feet, it is the most incredible sense of freedom.

It's still a mystery as to why I was born without arms. As a child, I found myself very frustrated because everyone was telling me, you can't do that because you don't have arms. You have a disability.

I have had some wonderful opportunities. I'm a scuba diver. I've surfed. I have a fourth degree black belt in American taekwondo. The summer after my college graduation I remember being approached by fighter pilot. He asked me if I wanted to go flying. Losing contact with the ground was a terrifying thought to me. I made the commitment after that first flight that I would do everything it takes to become a pilot.

Preparing for flying is as critical as flying the airplane itself. You check the oil. You check the fuel quantities. Because once you're in the sky, you don't have any other choice but to fly that plane.

Clear for takeoff. (INAUDIBLE)

It is a tremendous deal for me to be the first woman to fly an airplane with just her feet and to be certified to do so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very smooth.

COX: It has given me a vehicle to inspire people with disabilities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And we are cheering her on. Wow. How impressive.

Well, CNN is exploring the past, the present and the future of women's rights in the U.S. and around the world. Be sure to check out more of this reporting at CNN.com/represented.

[11:48:27]

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GOLODRYGA: Another day of outrage in Eastern Europe. Thousands of demonstrators marched through the capital of Belarus demanding a fair election saying that last week's vote was rigged. Officials in Belarus say nearly 7,000 people have been arrested in this week's protests.

The U.S. has been weighing in with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterating Saturday that he believes the elections in Belarus quote, "weren't free, they weren't fair". CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Minsk. And Fred -- I am so glad that you are covering this important story. These protesters are taking a real risk, aren't they?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: they certainly are taking a real risk. And it's hard to overstate just how much courage it takes these people to come out here. I want us to kind of pan over here in this direction a little bit and you can see how many people have actually come out, because where we are right now there are thousands of people who are out on the street and they're protesting.

And the way that they do that, at least in this location, is they stand at the side of this road, which is one of the main roads actually leading into the center of Minsk. They stand there, many of them women, with flowers and then the motorists there honk in support of the opposition.

And the reason, of course, why it takes them so much courage is because this is one of the most repressive states in the world and Alexander Lukashenko, the long time dictator, is one of the most repressive leaders in the world. And a lot of people and the protests after last Sunday's vote got beaten up. Thousands of people were arrested.

People were telling us that many, many people were tortured while they were in detention, women forced to strip down and kneel and then many people also humiliated on government television here in this country.

PLEITGEN: And yet, the people are still coming out and demanding that Alexander Lukashenko must go. He says that he won 80 percent of the vote. And as you can see by the turnout here a lot of people don't believe that that was the case.

[11:54:58]

They're calling for new elections and, quite frankly, they're also calling for an end to violence by the government security forces because so many people have been beat up. Some people actually killed, also in the last couple of days.

And the people here are telling us, Bianna, finally. They say, look, they know this is an extreme danger to them but they feel they need to come out now or maybe they'll never be able to witness change in their country, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And it takes such courage.

You see people from across the board there -- the youth, the factory workers that are protesting. As one source I spoke to said it's not a matter of if Lukashenko's regime ends, it's a matter of when.

Fred Pleitgen in Belarus, thank you so much for your reporting.

Well, coming up, is the state of Georgia doing enough to stop the spread of coronavirus? Health experts are raising red flags about the state's response as one school district reports more than 50 cases in just one week.

[11:55:49]

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